Stand Count

What are drone-based stand counts?

Stand counts analyze the number of plants or crops on a field or a specific area on the field. Agremo stand counts show two different numbers:

The exact number of plants or crops on your field

How this number is performing compared to the planned number of plants or crops (in percent and in plants).

The planned number is also referred to as the recommended set, and you enter it prior to submitting your request. It refers to the number of plants you have been expecting per acre, hectare or square meter. If you don’t have any numbers on the expected number of plants, a standardized value can be entered, which might, however, affect the accuracy of the report.

Here’s an example of what the Agremo stand count report tells you: You expect to get around 240,000 plants on your potato field and enter this as the recommended set. You submit your stand count analysis, which then reveals that you have a total number of 182,402 potatoes of your field. This means that the difference between the counted number of plants and the planned number of plants is 24% under the norm, which is close to 57,598 plants.

If you want to count your plants without entering a recommended set, you might want to request a plant population report instead. Plant population reports will provide you the number of plants without any additional comparisons.

Use stand counts to:

Evaluate plant emergence and germination. Spot areas with potential crop loss in time and decide whether or not to replant

Evaluate seed quality

Analyze the number of plants at the beginning and at the end of the growing season

Evaluate how effective replanting measures were

Know exactly how many plants you will be able to harvest (and sell)

Plan harvest and yield-related processes (logistics, resources).

When is the best time to use drone-based stand counts?

Stand counts come in handy for early and late season management decisions.

There are several benefits that drone-based stand counts have compared to traditional stand counts.

Drone-based stand counts are:

Fast and save time and resources

Able to cover around 500 acres in less than two hours

Accurate – with error rates lower than 2%. And with drones, you are able to analyze every inch of your field

Proactive and allow effective in-season corrective measures.

Example of a stand count report

The following stand count revealed a 4% difference between the planned number of plants and the actual number of plants, which translates to exactly 27,303 plants.

Ready to use Agremo reports? Register and grab your first 20-ACRE FREE reporthere!

To find out how powerful drone-based stand counts are, read our article on corn stand counts or take a look at our short stand count case study of a farmer who was able to spot 26% lower crop rates by performing an Agremo stand count analysis.

Disclaimer: People and plants are living beings – and living beings act differently from machines and algorithms. This is why Agremo does not claim to offer a complete or entirely error-free analysis of the provided data and cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions, damages or losses of any kind. Agremo makes significant efforts to keep the underlying workflow as proficient and precise as possible, but there are numerous limiting factors which cannot be foreseen, excluded or modified. Such limiting factors can affect the results of the analyses and include low image quality, complex natural phenomenon, diseases which cannot be captured with today’s technology etc.